dealer issues - too expensive

[G35_till_infinity]

Hello everyone, I just bought my '05 G35 this past june. I am in heaven. I love driving it. And talk about the looks from others..........even those driving the euro cars.........they want what I got!Enough of the flattery.

Need some help here. I need a break job in the coming weeks. I am trying not to go to the dealer being that they are too expensive and that I do have trust issues with the dealership by my place. What about places such as Midas? Would you recommend going to them. Any places you would recommend for tune ups as well. If I must go to the dealer.......than I will. But trying not to. Thanks.

[tollboothwilley]

have you ever changed your own brakes?

this is actually pretty simple to do and doesnt take too long

If you dont want to do that then I would say Midas, Big-O, Firestone, they are all similar. Its an easy enough job I wouldnt be worried if I was you.

[johnparkyourcar]

I'm right there with you, G35_till_infinity. How difficult is it to replace the brake pads? I would like to get to know how to do regular maintenance stuff on my car but I don't know where to start and also doesn't help that I don't trust myself either.

zerothread/140754

Would I be able to change out the pads by myself using that as a guide? How accurate is that write up? I don't want to start and get stuck half way thru.

[zozoka1212]

I suggest get a friend who knows more about this before you do your first one. Reason the write up is pretty good to follow it and do it. But do you know if your rotors need to be resurfaced or replaced? If you just replace the pads and the rotor is worn then you did nothing good to the car and your pocket$.

zozo

[etschell]

buy the pads on ebay, have them installed at a local midas.

[Q45tech]

Unfortunately pad swaps are the easy part.

The cleaning and prep and lubrication are the critical skills that may be lacking at generic shops and these are the things they skip to reduce prices.

Hire minimum wagers who cannot get jobs at dealers due to insurance [dui---too many felonies] or lack of tools [$12,000].

We are constantly repairing sloppy cheap brake work.

[telcoman]

Unfortunately pad swaps are the easy part.

The cleaning and prep and lubrication are the critical skills that may be lacking at generic shops and these are the things they skip to reduce prices.

Hire minimum wagers who cannot get jobs at dealers due to insurance [dui---too many felonies] or lack of tools [$12,000].

We are constantly repairing sloppy cheap brake work.

I agree with Q45

You get what you pay for in this world. Your life depends on brakes and tires. The independant shops charge almost as much as the dealer and mostly do shoddy work or use inferior partsWhat you may be able to do to reduce cost is to buy the parts yourself at the Infiniti parts counter & then hand them over to service. I just found out parts are marked up when service purchases them vs when a customer with perhaps a discount card purchases them. Take care $$ of the service guy and hopefully they'll take care of you.

Telcoman

[adren77]

Don't get any maintenance done at Midas or similar places. They will try to **** you. They tried to **** me a few times. I took my 200sx to them to see why my tires were lasting 10k miles. They did thorough inspection and said they can fix it if they change my shocks for $1,200. I bought the shocks for $300 and changed it myself. I was so happy that I fixed the car, so I bought a new set of tires. 10k miles later they were dead. So I took my car to a different shop, and when they lifted the car, I saw that the rear axle beam was severely bent. I couldn't tell by getting underneath the car, but once u jack the car up above you, it is so obvious. Those ****ers at Midas couldn't have missed it, it was so easy to spot, and they were gonna charge me $1200 to fix something totally irrelevant, and I would still have the same problem even after I pay that money.

Another time, I bought a new set of tires, took it to Midas and they put on the tires backwards. ****ing idiots.

My point is, if you can't do it yourself, don't pay some schmuck to do it because he is gonna do it for cheap. Dish out some extra cash and get good service.

[telcoman]

Don't get any maintenance done at Midas or similar places. They will try to **** you. They tried to **** me a few times. I took my 200sx to them to see why my tires were lasting 10k miles. They did thorough inspection and said they can fix it if they change my shocks for $1,200. I bought the shocks for $300 and changed it myself. I was so happy that I fixed the car, so I bought a new set of tires. 10k miles later they were dead. So I took my car to a different shop, and when they lifted the car, I saw that the rear axle beam was severely bent. I couldn't tell by getting underneath the car, but once u jack the car up above you, it is so obvious. Those ****ers at Midas couldn't have missed it, it was so easy to spot, and they were gonna charge me $1200 to fix something totally irrelevant, and I would still have the same problem even after I pay that money.

Another time, I bought a new set of tires, took it to Midas and they put on the tires backwards. ****ing idiots.

My point is, if you can't do it yourself, don't pay some schmuck to do it because he is gonna do it for cheap. Dish out some extra cash and get good service.

I agree!

You get what you pay for. Buy cheap, Buy twice